Put an ally over the top & fuel community renewal!

Julie Roberts is Green For All’s Cities Initiatives Regional Program Manager, bringing ten years organizing experience to helping cities around the country create innovative, city scale, green jobs programs.

A local ally of ours in Pittsburgh is close to winning $50,000 to sustain their work, they just need some help from you!

Growth Through Energy & Community Health (GTECH) is a social enterprise that transitions vacant land into platforms for community revitalization. GTECH is a part of the Pepsi Refresh Project (http://www.refresheverything.com/gtech) – a competition which awards grants based on your votes. They’re close to winning a $50,000 grant for their good work in Pittsburgh and New Orleans, but we need your help to keep them in the top ten.

Spun out from research at Carnegie Mellon in 2007, GTECH grows sunflowers on vacant land to cultivate the local green economy and create a model for community renewal.

The sunflowers that they plant on brownfields and vacant lots help improve soil quality, the seeds are harvested and turned into biofuel feedstock, and youth gain experience in number of green industries while turning an abandoned lot and liability into a community using creative, productive and inspiring green strategies.

Green For All and GTECH are working together in a Heinz Endowment supported project to impact and mitigate urban decay through appropriate revitalization technologies and targeted green jobs programs in Southwest Pennsylvania.

GTECH is really smart about their work. Not only is the organization reclaiming vacant land, they’re also investing in community capacity through outreach, coordination & research and small business stimulation. They play a key role in convening the Pittsburgh Green Jobs Advisory Board, the Pittsburgh Regional Green Economy Task Force and are working to increase the economic and environmental impact of energy efficiency work.

You can keep GTECH in the running, they’re currently in 6th place for their grant. With your help, we can keep them in the top 10, helping them to win $50,000 to increase their good work!